"Words that make actions speak louder."
It is indeed noteworthy that a bipartisan, six-year surface transportation bill is on its way to the full Senate. But the bill is being sent to the Senate with no guidance on how to pay for it.
Federal investment to rebuild America needs a champion. President Obama could give running room to the members of Congress and progressive activists with bold plans for the nation’s infrastructure.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen is expected on Wednesday to announce the latest verdict on if, and perhaps when, interest rates will begin to rise. The answer should be: when workers’ wages rise.
A Congress gridlocked by conservative ideologues hit the equivalent of the snooze button on a surface transportation bill that would provide federal funding for the nation’s bridges, roads and public transportation.
There is an intensifying fight over whether the jobs that our infrastructure spending creates should be “good jobs” with living wages and benefits or low-road jobs with declining wages.
House Speaker John Boehner’s protestation misses the larger point about the historic failure to invest properly in our passenger rail system, which affects Amtrak’s ability to deploy safety systems quickly.
An Amtrak train derails on its way through Philadelphia. A House appropriations subcommittee votes to cut federal funding for Amtrak by about 20 percent. Two dots conservatives don’t want you to connect.
Anti-government conservative ideologues and their big-business benefactors have an interest in convincing people that privatization, privatization-lite and breaks for tax evaders are the only options worth discussing.
Progressive populists are going to have to get loud and get active – and this is a good week to do so. An adequately and honestly funded infrastructure plan is essential to a “jobs for all” agenda.
As has been true for the past few months, you have to get below the sunny top lines of the April jobs report to get the real story: We’re still have a slack labor market, and right-wing austerity is the cause.